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Bone marrow donor, recipient meet

By: Clint Cooper
(Contact)

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Joshua Blake of Chattanooga signed up to be a bone marrow donor for the young son of two friends several years ago and wound up saving the life of a 27-year-old nearly 650 miles away.

The two met last week when the recipient, Nikki Saad of St. Clair Shores, Mich., and four friends drove here to meet him.

“Without him, I wouldn’t be here,” she said at a reception for the pair at Blood Assurance, through which Mr. Blake registered as a donor.

Ms. Saad was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2005. After undergoing chemotherapy, she was in remission for nine months. When her leukemia returned, she was told she would need a bone marrow transplant.

Her first bone marrow match agreed to and then backed out of a transplant. A procedure involving the infusion of umbilical cord blood then failed, and she was forced to remain in the hospital for two months with no immune system before being matched with Mr. Blake.

The two aren’t a perfect match, Ms. Saad said, and she still has side effects of graft-vs.-host disease, but she prefers it to the alternative.

She referred to Mr. Blake, 30, an employee of BlueCross BlueShield, as a hero, but he shrugged off the mantle, insisting anyone else would do the same thing.

“I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” he said.

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